caring Communication

General
News
the National Service Plan 2016
The HSE National Service Plan for 2016,
which sets out the type and range of health
and personal social services that can be
delivered during the year, was approved by
the Minister for Health, Leo Varadkar, at the
end of 2015.
Early in 2015, we launched our Corporate
Plan which sets out our ambition for the
health services over the three years 2015–
2017. Delivery on our vision of a ‘high quality
health service valued by all’ is underpinned
by five key goals.
The National Service Plan 2016 details the
actions which we will take to deliver on the
goals over the course of the year, grounded
in our values of Care, Compassion, Trust
and Learning, and emphasising the need for
quality, patient-centred care. The key focus
for 2016 is striking the balance between
significant ongoing financial challenges and
the need to provide a quality, safe service.
Longer term reform of the health services
is well underway with the establishment of
hospital groups and community healthcare
organisations. A focus in 2016 is to further
develop these so that they can operate in
an effective and integrated way, placing the
patient at the centre of all services that we
deliver.
Priorities in 2016 include...
• Improving Quality and Patient Safety
• Reforming services to achieve better outcomes for patients and service users
• Optimising existing hospital and community capacity, to improve the patient experience, patient flow and timeliness of quality service delivery
• Implement actions from the Healthy Ireland Agenda across the organisation
• Ensuring the provision of integrated care and clinical programmes
• Reducing waiting times and waiting lists
• Extending GP care without fees to all children aged between 6 and 12 years
• Developing Children First implementation plans
• Provide a range of home and community support to enable older people to live independently for as long as possible.
• Develop services for people with a disability so that they are supported to reach their full potential
• Promoting mental health and resilience including implementing Connecting for Life- Irelands national strategy to reduce suicide.
There is an increase in budget allocation for 2016 which is very welcome. However, significant financial challenges
remain within acute hospitals, social care, social inclusion and the Primary Care Reimbursement Scheme when
consideration is given to the increasing demand for services arising from a growing and ageing population. We will
do all within our power to maximise delivery of a quality, patient-centred service within the funding available.
Delivery of the National Service Plan 2016 will be supported by the Accountability Framework which sets out the
arrangements in place between the National Performance Oversight Group (NPOG) and the National Directors in
accounting for and responding to areas of underperformance across the balanced scorecard of access to services,
quality, financial management and human resources.
The Corporate Plan 2015–2017 and National Service Plan 2016 are available online at www.hse.ie/eng/services/
publications/corporate along with Divisional Operational Plans for 2016 which further detail the implementation
of the National Service Plan 2016 across our services.
The National Service Plan is prepared by the Planning Unit within Planning and Business Information (PBI), Office of the Deputy Director
General in conjunction with the Planning and Performance Leads across all service divisions and support functions. Queries in relation to same
should be directed to planning.ddg@hse.ie
62 | health matters | spring 2016